Yummy list of Links

20 comments

I am pretty proud of how optimized I am for web surfing these days. If anything in my life is organized, it’s the way I browse the web every morning. I guess I shouldn’t brag about it, but it did take some planning and prioritizing. Not only do I have my iGoogle homepage tricked out with RSS from my favorite sites (divided into 5 categories) and my daily to-do list (which, ahem, RARELY gets done), but I have an addition list of Google Reader RSS feeds of trashy celebrity sites, fantasy review sites, technology sites, weird news sites…all the sites I put in the “if I have time to waste I’ll read this crap” category. All tagged neatly as well. 😉 After my homepage browsing I always start at popurls.com and open tabs on any articles I think look interesting. The time drain spirals out of control until I can blast myself out of my chair a few hours later. It’s a daily ritual that I’ve settled into, and it’s rare that I add new sites to my daily regiment because I try to at least be a little considerate with my own time. 🙂

But tonight, I got a few more! I found this great article from PC Magazine. They just came out with a list of top 100 “unknown” websites. Drool! Now, I don’t mean to brag, but I knew about a bunch of these, ’cause I’m incredibly cool…er, incredibly chained to my computer…but there were some really neat ones I came across that are worth a look. One of the most interesting to me was www.kiva.org. It’s a place where you can loan money to real people for micro loans, say, to buy land or buy chickens for them to raise. I’ve heard/read stories on the emergence of the micro-loan and how it’s really helped third world people, especially women, avoid borrowing from loan sharks and I think this is a really cool idea. It really touched me to see that there’s a way to help a real person directly rather than giving a ton of money to an organization who spends money on sending me BACK address labels and cups and hideous old lady T-shirts (I’m talking to you, Humane Society! I don’t need a stationery set, thanks! Just save some dogs for me!)

There are a bunch more I bookmarked while looking through the list, but I REALLY got excited by Good Reads. It’s a social networking site for book lovers. You list all the books you’ve read, share shelves with people, be a member of groups dedicated to subjects, write reviews about what books you’re reading…some people have like, 3000 books listed! You can also post your own writing, which is neat. This might be a social networking site I could get into! Oh great, that’s all I need, another site to check messages for 🙂 But, this one might be one I’m actually interested in updating and posting to. I’ll see if it sticks!

Frigid

You know my favorites list has doubled since I started reading your Flog. Your internet browsing is infectious and I do believe you need to be quarantined despite how cool the sites you put up on here! Omg there is a site called how stuff works….

Ok, I’m actually looking at this GoodBooks site again, and man, this is gonna be a TON of work to input all the books I’ve read, even for just this year.
Er….hmmm…uh….maybe not gonna happen. Still a GREAT idea thought 😀

Samantha

I’ve heard about Good Reads before, but it did seem like a lot of work. I started it just now, but only got so far. I don’t want to type in ALL the names of ALL my books, but if they had lists or something, I could just pick ’em off the list. But these silly lists only have like 50 items each! I don’t want a compact list; I want the kind of list you spend a whole mind-numbing day reading!

But I’m also not really sure how useful the site will be to me. I don’t really want to write reviews and I don’t really want to read reviews, so this is possibly useless. 🙂 But a good waste of time none-the-less.

All the Tv shows you didn’t have time to see, now in full stream video!

Courtney

There’s a show on the discovery channel that shows how stuff is made. It’s on right as I get home from work and I find it to be incredibly relaxing. If you liked seeing the video from Sesame Street that showed how to make crayons, then you might like that show.

As far as time wasters, stay away from Fark.com. Hugely addicting, and if you get a Total Fark membership, kiss your productivity goodbye.

Jeff

popurls.com is great, also make sure to make a daily visit. I try to stick to the top 3 (digg.com, del.icio.us, reddit.com) as they seem like the best and I don’t want to waste my entire day, heh.

I’ve heard of kiva.org before from NPR. Cool idea – and it’s interesting to hear a little about the trends of what people invest in also:

WTF…popurls.tv is so awesome! Why is it so fascinating? It’s like watching water boil, which I have to admit, I like doing.
But Frigid, that tv link is the best link I’ve seen in SO LONG. I can’t tell you how much I’ll use this now, to reference shows for acting and other stuff, thanks SO MUCH! I knew I posted this for a reason 🙂
And I think I’m assigning myself a reading task every few days from howstuffworks because I had no idea how an air conditioner worked before I read about it on there, and now I feel WAY cooler. Har har.

Edgar

Oh man, I thought I had enough with youtube, my guild’s forums, (now) the Flog, and the variety of friends that de.licio.us things to me… At least thats how I found “the guild”. I wish I could get paid to surf the net randomly for no real reason…

We’d all be rich!

Jeff

Yeah, http://www.tv-links.co.uk is great in case I miss an episode. Or want to watch an entire season I’ve missed. And you know it has everything when it has all of My So-Called Life…hehe.

Problem is, I’m always worried they’ll take that site down. Being that it’s…well, I don’t want to jinx it. 😛

You could try Lord of the Rings Online if you ever feel tempted to play a MMORPG again. It’s extremely casual player friendly and thanks to the lifetime subscription you can get, there’s no irrational “but I paid for this month, must get the most out of it” mental torment going on. (Plus, it’s got lots of hobbits, pie and ale. What more could you want. *g*)

Just saw “the guild” series on youtube. Very nicely done. Also, you make me feel guilty as though I am not doing my duty to society by having a good favorites list. All I have (aside from facebook) is one lonely folder titled “Fall Classes 07.” I must work to rectify this.

Jersey Mike

If your looking for a good time waster, I swear I’ve killed tons of time looking up old TV Openings. Hilarious. God that sounds so geeky. Regardless I said it.

Edgar

“If your looking for a good time waster, I swear I’ve killed tons of time looking up old TV Openings. Hilarious. God that sounds so geeky. Regardless I said it.” – Jersey Mike

um… “Now the world don’t move, to the beat of just one drum… what might be right for you, may not be right for some…”